Tech Mahindra, Sun Micro join hands

The two have formed a strategic alliance to address a $500 million (Rs 2050 crore) Asia-Pacific market in the emerging area of Internet Protocol television, reports Narayanan Madhavan.

businessUpdated: May 14, 2007 22:47 IST

Narayanan Madhavan

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Tech Mahindra, the country's eighth largest software exporter, and US-based Sun Microsystems announced on Monday that they had formed a strategic alliance to address a $500 million (Rs 2050 crore) Asia-Pacific market in the emerging area of Internet Protocol television (IPTV), hoping to cash in on growing areas such as personalised video-on-demand that involves pumping television-like content over the Internet.

"It is a go-to-market strategy for the Asia-Pacific region, exclusive for the geography. But it may be evaluated for the other regions," Tech Mahindra spokesman Bibek Chattopadhyay told the Hindustan Times, adding that the region's market size could expand as more players enter the IPTV market.

Customers in this field could include telecom service providers, cable operators and broadband players who can offer video content using Sun Microsystems' core technology platform, which is used by partners like Tech Mahindra that roll out and implement the platform.

No revenue figures were given on what the two companies could get from the alliance which would benefit from a 100-person laboratory set up by Tech Mahindra, Sun and chip-maker AMD to showcase IPTV technologies.

Sun employs other partners in other regions, but the emerging growth economies of Asia offer a strong business opportunity for Tech Mahindra.

Sun recently introduced the Sun Streaming System which it described as "the industry's first massively scalable and cost-effective video delivery platform for cable and telecommunications operators, which helps operators increase subscriber revenue by offering new video-based services and personalised, unique video streams to each consumer."

"The state-of-the-art lab will showcase a pre-integrated end-to-end IPTV system for tier 1, tier 2 and tier 3 service providers. Tech Mahindra would use this lab to showcase its IPTV domain expertise to its global customers," Sun and Tech Mahindra said in a joint statement.

KP Unnikrishnan, Director, Strategic Alliances, Sun Microsystems India said, "Through this alliance with Tech Mahindra we are looking forward to showcasing an end-to-end IPTV solution based on carrier grade Sun systems featuring the revolutionary Sun Streaming System. This is Sun's first such alliance in the country for IPTV services. We are extremely excited about this partnership and what it entails for us."

Tech Mahindra is a leading provider of solutions and services to the telecommunications industry, majority stake owned by Mahindra & Mahindra limited, in partnership with British Telecommunications plc.